A New York time-lapse

Step inside the elevators at 1 World Trade Center and witness 515 years of history unfolding at the tip of Manhattan.

The New York Times reports that an imposingly realistic vision of the old 1 World Trade Center, the ultimately doomed north tower, will begin appearing next month in the five special elevators servicing the observatory atop the new 1 World Trade Center. “From the moment the doors close until they reopen 47 seconds later on the 102nd floor, a seemingly three-dimensional time-lapse panorama will unfold on three walls of the elevator cabs, as if one were witnessing 515 years of history unfolding at the tip of Manhattan Island,” the paper states.

There would have been no way around Sept. 11, 2001, said David W. Checketts, the chairman and chief executive of Legends Hospitality, the company chosen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 2013 to operate the three-level observatory. “The event is certainly a key part of history,” he said. “We did not think you could ignore it. Having it appear in the year it did and disappear in the year it did was the respectful way of addressing the fact that it was part of the landscape.”